


怨霊 - Vengeful Ghost: A Japanese Ghost Story in Four Acts

by Steelneko



Category: Mononoke
Genre: Bad things happening to nice people, Character Death, Violence, 梅の木の下で死体が埋葬されている。
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 17:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steelneko/pseuds/Steelneko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The third time Kayo met the Medicine Seller, it was early spring and the trees were starting to bloom.</p><p>And a ghost was trying to kill them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	怨霊 - Vengeful Ghost: A Japanese Ghost Story in Four Acts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hellzabeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellzabeth/gifts).



  
**PROLOGUE**

Kayo opened the front gate to her master’s estate, and let out a short scream. She muffled the noise with the wide sleeve of her cotton kimono.

There in the evening sun, on the tree-lined street leading up to the estate, stood the Medicine Seller. He looked as calm as always, and not at all surprised to see her again.

“Hello,” he said, drawing each syllable out slowly and carefully. “Kayo-san, wasn’t it?”

“You--” Kayo started to say, and then thought better of it. She eased the wooden gate mostly closed behind her, and leaned in close to him to speak in a hush. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, after that mess with the freaky bakeneko at the Sakai family estate, and that freakier fish monster and weird incesty monk on the boat. It’s like you only ever show up when there’s monsters around.” Her eyebrows drew together in concern. “Is there... Is there another mononoke? Here in Mito-shi?”

“Who can say,” said the Medicine Seller. His light hair fell across his face, obscuring his expression.

Kayo frowned. “There is, isn’t there, or else you wouldn’t be here.” She leaned back against the gate. “I was really, really hoping to never see one again. That’s kinda why I jumped at the sudden opening for a household servant here in Mito-shi, ‘cause it was far enough away from the other attacks that I thought I didn’t have to worry. I even bought an omamori amulet from the local shrine to protect me from evil.”

She reached into the folds of her obi, and pulled out a pocket-sized red brocade bag with a tiny bell attached. She held it out to show him. “See?”

The Medicine Seller took the amulet from her with a pale hand and looked it over carefully. “This may work to keep away lesser spirits, but not mononoke,” he said, handing it back.

Kayo pouted and tucked it back in her obi. “Well, great.”

“Is your master at home?” the Medicine Seller asked.

“The lord and lady have gone to Edo, but the young master and his new bride are here. I can ask him if he’ll receive you.”

The Medicine Seller bowed slightly. “If you would be so kind.”

“I’ll go ask,” she said. “Wait here just a minute.” She reopened the gate, closed it behind her, and headed off deeper into the estate grounds.

An unseen bell rang out once across the courtyard as the gate clicked shut.

 

**Act I.  
  
** Form 

 

A garden filled up the large area behind the estate’s main building. A stone path set into the mossy ground wound past rows of carefully planted plum trees, through the heart of the area. In the heavy evening light, the trees looked almost purple; their blossoms, blood red.

In the middle of the garden stood a small wooden tea house. The sliding screen doors opposite its entrance were open to the elements. A man was stretched out on the woven tatami-mat floor, staring out at the view.

Kayo led the Medicine Seller down the path towards the tea house. “Hideo-sama, the young master, is in the tea house again,” she said quietly. “He loves to spend the evenings there, especially when the plum trees are in bloom. Iemon-san, his samurai retainer, is probably around here somewhere. He’s like a dog, always follows the young master.”

“Ah,” said the Medicine Seller.

A set of stones led off the main garden path towards to the tea house entrance. Kayo started down it, and then hesitated when she realized the Medicine Seller had stopped following her. She traced back her steps to stand next to him, and tried to follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.

Every plum tree in the garden was in full bloom. Every tree, except the one that grew right next to the tea house. It sat cold and barren, without even the slightest bud on its branches. Round rocks circled its base and passed through a gap in the small bamboo fence surrounding the tea house. Standing next to the Medicine Seller, Kayo could see that the two path stones closest to the base of the tree were out of alignment.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“It’s nothing,” the Medicine Seller said in that slow, careful way of his, although his focus stayed on the barren tree. He stood there staring for a moment more, before following Kayo the rest of the way.

She slipped off her sandals as she stepped up into the entrance area of the building. The tea house was small, only four woven tatami mats across. A small fire pit was set into the floor at the spot where the four mats met, and a paper lantern had been lit in one of the corners in anticipation of nightfall. An ink painting of the Shinto goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto with a fiery comb at her feet hung in the shrine alcove at the side of the room.

Kayo knelt down at the very edge of the tatami mats, and bowed once before speaking.

“My lord?” she said. “I’ve brought the merchant here to see you.”

Lord Hideo turned to face her. He was a handsome young man, with high cheek bones that highlighted his beautiful dark eyes. He held a small cup of sake in one hand, and was lazily tracing the spiral designs on the sake bottle with the other. He lazed out across the floor by the open sliding doors, apparently enjoying the view of the garden with his drink.

“Let him in,” he said. “I’m interested to see his wares.”

Kayo bowed again, and returned to the entrance to beckon the Medicine Seller in. He paused again at the threshold to the tea house, and smiled a slight knowing smile before stepping inside and stepping out of his sandals.

Kayo gestured him in, and then sat down quietly in seiza position at the far side of the room, next to a tall, reedy samurai with a top knot, careful not to get too close to the katana and wakizashi short sword set laid out next to him. He gave her a disparaging look, but said nothing. Kayo stuck her tongue out at him once he looked away.

The Medicine Seller set his pack gently down on the floor, and bowed deeply before speaking. “It is an honour to see you, my lord.”

Lord Hideo set the sake cup down. “So, a medicine seller. And what kinds of medicine do you sell?”

“A little bit of everything,” the Medicine Seller said. “Pain treatments. Cold remedies. Traditional cures.” He opened the bottom drawer and took out a small glass bottle with a white powder inside, which he set directly in front of Lord Hideo. “Marital aids.”

Lord Hideo let out a laugh. “Oh I assure you, I don’t need any help with _that_.” He pushed the bottle back towards the Medicine Seller. “Let’s see what you have for herbal remedies.”

“Of course.” As Kayo watched, the Medicine Seller took out all kinds of wonders from his pack and set them on the floor in front of Lord Hideo: glass bottles, paper packets, raw herbs, acupuncture needles, strange tools Kayo couldn’t even guess the purpose of. Lord Hideo seemed to enjoy it, as every now and then he would pick things up and look them over. Kayo wondered how long this would take; her feet were starting to tingle a bit from the numbness of sitting in seiza too long. She quietly shifted her position around to try and help keep the circulation in her toes.

“You don’t have to stay here, you know,” Iemon said dismissively, low enough so that their lord couldn’t hear. “Hideo-dono doesn’t need useless servants around him all the time, and I’m sure you have cleaning or something to attend to.”

Kayo glowered at the floor. “One of my duties is to attend to the guests who come to visit. Unless _you’d_ like to escort the merchant back to the main gate when they’re done here.”

Iemon scoffed. “It’d be below my class standing to do so,” he said.

There was a noise from the outer edge of the garden, somewhere beyond the plum trees surrounding the tea house. “My Lord?” a refined-sounding woman’s voice called. “Are you out here?”

“We’re in the tea house, Okiku. Come join us,” Lord Hideo called back. “Okiku, my wife,” he explained to the Medicine Seller. “We were married just last month.” He smiled. “She’s related to the powerful Satake clan.”

“Ah,” the Medicine Seller said.

A woman rounded the corner of the path through the garden. She was a classic beauty, with her hair pined up in an elaborate style and held in place by combs decorated with red plum blossoms. Her multilayered silk kimono rustled as she walked down the stone path. Her obi brushed the lowest branches of the trees, causing a few delicate petals to fall behind her.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen the inside of your tea house here before,” Okiku said. “Would I be intruding if I were to join you?”

“No, of course not,” Lord Hideo replied. “There’s a merchant visiting us now. Come see what he has for wares.”

Okiku turned down the path leading to the tea house, stepping delicately from stone to stone. She stumbled a bit on the strange, unmatching stones next to the barren tree, and reached out a hand to the wooden frame of the tea house’s door to steady herself.

And suddenly everything changed.

The peals of hundreds of bells rang out in discordance across the yard, causing Kayo to clasp her hands over her ears in pain. Thick, curling black fog flooded in around the base of the trees, completely cutting off their view of anything more than a few meters away. Okiku froze in place. To Kayo’s horror, deep gash lines suddenly ripped themselves open across her face. Okiku screamed, and collapsed forward into the tea house’s entrance. Kayo leaped forward to catch her mistress before she hit the floor, and drag her fully inside. Her numb feet ached at the sudden move.

The black mist outside slowly materialized into a human shape. A woman stood there, dressed in a white burial kimono caked with dirt, which dragged on the ground. Her unkempt hair flowed wild and loose around her head. Indigo lines spread out across her face. An open gash sliced across her throat, and glowing patterned liquid spilled out of it, and down into the front of her kimono. She raised a hand to point into the tea house, and Kayo could see that all of her fingers ended in sharp, blood-red claws.

“He is mine,” she said, her voice reverberating with the sound of clanging bells. “Give him to me.”

Kayo tried to hold back a scream.

“Suzu,” Lord Hideo said. Bells.

The Medicine Seller leaped to his feet. He flung out his arms, and all the doors on the tea house slammed shut. Another fling, and ofuda wards flew out from his sleeves to coat the wooden walls around them. Black ink sutra verses appeared on the white ofuda papers before shifting into red eyes warning of danger.

All of the wares that had been scattered around the floor were somehow gone, and Medicine Seller’s pack now sat in the alcove space below the ink painting. He flicked his fingers, and one of the drawers slid open. A sword lifted itself out of the pack, and flew to his hand. He held the sword aloft in front of him, facing the space where the apparition had been.

“Mononoke, at last you have revealed your form to me,” he said. “I see you for what you are. Onryou. A vengeful ghost.”

The Sword of Exorcism clicked once.

 

**Act II.  
  
** Truth 

  


For a moment, there was nothing but the angry roar of the onryou outside and the constant ringing of bells. Kayo busied herself laying Okiku’s prone form carefully down on the floor. She opened the tea house’s supply cupboard and pulled out a couple of chakin cleaning cloths to press against Okiku’s face. The cuts were bleeding something fierce, and she seemed to have passed out from the pain, but at least she was still alive.

“What was that?” Lord Hideo said. The sake cup fell from his hand and rolled sideways across the floor into the empty fire pit.

The edge of the Medicine Seller’s lip curled up. “A mononoke,” he said.

Iemon let out a snort of disgust. “Ridiculous. Mononoke are just creatures made up by superstitious peasants and drunken kabuki playwrights. Those things don’t exist in the real world.”

“Err...” said Kayo, unsure if she should speak up. “I, um, I’ve kind of seen a couple of them before. And it’s okay, because the merchant can to save us from it.”

Iemon glared at her. “And how do we know you’re not one of the superstitious peasants?”

“Because I’ve survived both a bakeneko and an umizatou, and I know what I saw,” Kayo snapped.

“You know this man?” Lord Hideo asked, calming down a little now that the onryou was out of sight.

“Kind of? A little,” Kayo admitted. “We’ve crossed paths before when other mononoke have shown up. I don’t think I even know his real name.” She looked at the Medicine Seller. “What _is_ your real name, anyway?”

He ignored her question, and gestured open another drawer. “Kayo-san, if you wouldn’t mind setting up the scales again so we can track the mononoke,” he said as little golden scales floated out of the box towards Kayo.

Recognizing a brush-off when she saw one, Kayo started touching the scales to place them into position as Lord Hideo asked, “And how do you know the mononoke isn’t here already?”

The Medicine Seller pointed to the pulsing ofuda covering most of the walls. “I’ve created a barrier protecting the inside of this building. The mononoke will not be able to breach it unless the seals give way. Or someone inside is stupid enough to break it.”

Iemon narrowed his eyes at the Medicine Seller. “Who are you, merchant? And how do you have a sword?”

The Medicine Seller tapped the side of his blade. “This is the Sword of Exorcism. It can defeat any mononoke as long as I know the form it takes, the reason for its existence, and the truth behind its creation. We have seen the form the mononoke takes. So then, tell me: what are its truth and its reason?”

Kayo finished her work with the scales and crossed her arms across her chest. “Well, don’t look at me. I’ve only been here a month. I don’t have any connections to this.”

“Oh?” The Medicine Seller raised a pale eyebrow at her. “Kayo-san, how did you get this position?”

“Oh, well, I was in Edo looking for work, and I heard there was a noble family in Mito-shi in sudden desperate need of a household servant so I applied and they took me on and—” Her eyes went wide in realization. “ _Oh_ ,” she said. “You think that the onryou might have been a servant here?”

The Medicine Seller made no reply.

She looked at Lord Hideo instead. “My lord, whose position did I fill?”

Lord Hideo looked uncomfortable. “Forgive me, I don’t know all the servants here. They come and go so often.”

“Suzu,” the Medicine Seller said, drawing each syllable out.

Lord Hideo’s eyes went wide.

“That’s what you just said, isn’t it? ‘Suzu’. So tell me, what does ‘suzu’ mean?”

No one moved. The bells continued ring out beyond the barrier, but no one moved, until Iemon said, “Suzu-kun was a servant here. She died shortly before the marriage took place.”

“So you knew her?” Kayo asked.

Iemon nodded. “In a way.” He grabbed his katana and stood up. “I would imagine it is me she wants.”

Kayo raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh? And what did you do to get a ghost this angry at you?”

“I killed her,” he said matter of factly. Kayo choked on her words. 

Iemon took a step closer to the group. “I was patrolling the estate grounds one night, when I heard noises from the treasure house. I looked in to see a servant girl stealing one of the family’s precious heirloom plates. I called her out, and she tried to run off with it. Since she wouldn’t stop, I had no choice but to cut her down. I secretly took her body to the local temple for cremation, so as not to disturb the wedding between Hideo-dono and Okiku-sama.”

Kayo peeked at the Sword of Exorcism. It rested, lifeless, in the Medicine Seller’s hands. The Medicine Seller sat there unmoving; his face unreadable.

Iemon came to directly face Lord Hideo, and dropped into a full floor-level bow in front of him, the katana laid out between the two like an offering. “My lord,” he said. “As your humble servant, I would do anything in my power to protect you. Allow me to face this monster for you in hopes of appeasing it.”

Lord Hideo nodded, his expression a strange mixture of concern and relief. “I thank you, Iemon-san.”

Iemon straightened back up. He took up his katana again, before taking a deep breath and approaching the sliding doors.

“Wait, don’t!” Kayo yelled.

Iemon grabbed the edge of one of the sliding wooden doors and threw it open.

The bells stopped instantly.

The garden stood empty. The sun was starting to slide past the top of the stone wall surrounding the estate, casting long black shadows across the garden grounds. Everything was so unnaturally quiet that Kayo could hear the sound of her own pulse thrumming in her ears.

Iemon drew his katana and stepped out onto the first stone step leading up to the tea house, eyes darting back and forth, looking for any movement.

Nothing happened.

He took a second step forward.

A third.

A fourth step, stepping onto one of the odd stones in the path. He let out the breath he was holding.

Clawed white arms shot out of the barren plum tree and grabbed him by the throat.

He staggered backwards, and the full onryou materialized. He let out a cry and slashed his sword about wildly, but the blade did nothing but pass right through her. She slammed him hard onto the mossy ground, leaving him dazed. She drew back her hands, and then attacked.

Her claws carved out bloody chunks of flesh from his neck and torso, which splattered to the ground with a wet thump before dissolving into piles of crimson plum blossoms. Iemon thrashed about wildly, unable to escape the onryou’s attack. His head lolled to the side, and his eyes desperately pleaded for aid.

The screen door slammed shut on its own. The noise from the garden suddenly disappeared.

Kayo felt sick. “He’s... he’s dead, isn’t he?” she said.

“Most likely,” the Medicine Seller said, his tone still unchanging.

“So that’s it then, right?” Lord Hideo said. “The ghost killed the person who killed it. Justice served. No more need to exist.”

There was a stretch of uncomfortable silence, before the Medicine Seller said, “No.”

“No?” said Lord Hideo, anger and fear mixing in his voice. “No! What more can it want?”

“A mononoke is an incarnation of a strong emotion, and an onryou is a spirit of vengeance. She has been hurt greatly, and she seeks revenge against those who wronged her. But her desire for revenge cannot ever be abated. Even if she kills all of us here, she would continue her quest for vengeance as long as she existed.”

Lord Hideo fell back. “So we’re all going to die.”

“Possibly,” the Medicine Seller said. “Iemon-san broke the barrier. The onryou will be coming for us now. There is no earthly way to stop a mononoke.” He lifted his sword again and looked Lord Hideo straight in the eyes. “Unless you tell me the truth behind the ghost’s existence, and the reason it seeks vengeance.”

“Iemon-san told you the truth. He caught a servant girl stealing and--”

“No,” the Medicine Seller said, cutting Lord Hideo off with a word. “The truth.”

A heavy silence fell back over everything. Kayo looked back and forth between Lord Hideo and the Medicine Seller. Neither of them moved or gave in.

“Hideo-sama,” said the Medicine Seller, breaking the silence at last. “Why doesn’t that plum tree bloom?”

Lord Hideo went pale and hunched his shoulders a little. The Medicine Seller continued to watch him silently.

“My lord?” Kayo said. “What does the tree have to do with anything? Do you know something?”

“It used to bloom,” Lord Hideo said, and then snapped his mouth shut.

“Until what?” asked the Medicine Seller, dragging out each individual syllable so it sounded like an accusation.

Lord Hideo stared down at the floor. His jaw tightened and his hands clenched and unclenched, as though fighting with himself.

He took a deep sigh and finally looked up again.

“Until we dumped Suzu’s body there,” he said.

The Sword of Exorcism clicked a second time.

 

**Act III.  
  
** Reason 

 

“ _What_?” Kayo said. “You _knew_ about this? You _knew_ that Iemon-san killed someone? You _know_ the mononoke’s _name_?”

“I didn’t know there was a mononoke here,” Lord Hideo said. “I knew Suzu-san. I was there when she died. But I didn’t kill her.”

“Hmm,” said the Medicine Seller.

There was a noise from the side of the tea house.

Slowly, inch by inch, the sliding screen doors slid back open on their own.

There was no sign outside of either the onryou or Iemon having ever been there. There was almost no colour to be seen, either. All the bright tones in the garden had been stripped away, leaving everything painted in strong greys and blacks.

The only bits of colour came from tiny golden bells, hundreds of them, strung up from every branch, every fence post. Lord Hideo’s eyes went wide at the sight, and his face paled.

A scale tinkled as it tipped over to point into the tea house. “She’s here,” said the Medicine Seller.

Kayo watched as one by one, each magic scale tipped over onto one side.

Until every single scale in the room bowed towards where Okiku lay.

Everything went still and eerily silent as Okiku’s eyes slowly opened. Kayo’s breath caught in her throat as Okiku’s eyelids rose to reveal nothing but pupil-less white underneath. There was the hiss of silk sliding over woven reed mats as Okiku slowly sat upwards, her rising chest dragging her lolling her arms and head behind it. The chakin cloths tumbled off her face. Her combs slid out, leaving her beautiful black hair to fall loose. She collapsed forward in on herself, and then sat up straight with unnaturally perfect posture.

“Hideo-sama,” she said. When she spoke it was though two voices were speaking at the same time: one gentle and dulled, one harsh and full of rage. She turned to stare directly at Lord Hideo with those horrible, empty eyes set over the bloody gashes the onryou had clawed into her face.

Her fingernails darkened and twisted until blood-red claws sprouted from the ends of Okiku’s delicate hands. She reached out for Lord Hideo, and advanced.

Lord Hideo grabbed Iemon’s abandoned short sword and threw off the scabbard. He swung wildly at the approaching woman, leaving cuts all over Okiku’s outstretched arms. Still she kept coming; half walking, half stumbling forward.

“Stop it! You’re just hurting her!” Kayo yelled.

“She’s a monster!” Lord Hideo called back.

“She’s possessed!” Kayo said.

The Medicine Seller pulled an ofuda from out of his sleeve, and cast it at Okiku’s forehead. It clamped to her skin and she screamed with both voices before collapsing back to the floor in front of Lord Hideo, who kept his blood-spattered sword out in front of him. Okiku opened her mouth wide, and the ghost rushed out in a mass of reeling black smoke, which plastered to the walls like ink smears.

The Medicine Seller held the Sword of Exorcism aloft.

“Now, mononoke,” he commanded, “show me the reason for your anger.”

The paper lantern in the corner suddenly flared up with light, and the ghostly miasma twisted and formed patterns to show Suzu’s memories splayed across the walls like a shadow puppet show.

 

_Suzu searches through the garden. The crescent moon floats above the horizon. She’s frantic, looking for something. The hem of her simple cotton kimono gets covered in dirt, as she keeps kneeling to run her hands through the moss, feeling around for something._

_She has her back to the tea house when the screen doors slide open. She jumps upright in shock, and turns to look. Lord Hideo is laying there, a sake bottle in one hand, a book of classical poetry spread out in front of him, reading in the pale light of a small lantern._

_“Are you looking for something?” he asks. His tone has the lazy confidence of a cat that’s spotted a mouse sneaking into the kitchen._

_“Oh, um...” She clasps her hands together, her fingers nervously twisting the fabric of her sleeves. “I dropped my omamori amulet somewhere out here today, and I can’t find it. It... It was a gift from my mother before I left home, and it means a lot to me.” Her face flushes. “You... You haven’t seen one around, have you? It’s a bell from Gyokurenji Temple, because I’m Suzu, and ‘suzu’ means ‘bell’, and I...” She starts bowing. “And I’m so sorry for disturbing you at night, my lord, so sorry.”_

_Lord Hideo reaches out to grab hold of Suzu’s hand. “It’s fine. I don’t mind. Go to bed, and I’m sure it’ll turn up later.” He smiles, but there’s something behind it. “Good night, Suzu- _chan_.”_

_Suzu bows once again as she backs nervously away, and then flees back to the main house._

_Suzu scrubs the boards on the outside deck of the tea house when there’s a jingling noise and a small golden bell drops into her field of view. She looks up to see Lord Hideo standing right behind her, holding it. She smiles in thanks and reaches up to for it._

_He yanks it out of her reach before she can take it_

_She pauses, confused. “My lord?” she asks._

_He watches her. “I found your bell,” he says, shaking it again. His eyes take on a cruel gleam. “What would you do to get it back?”_

_Suzu pushes herself up to her feet. “What... What do you want?_

_“A kiss,” Lord Hideo says._

_Suzu’s eyes go wide. “A kiss? But, my lord I’ve never... And it would be wrong for someone as lowly as I to kiss the family heir.”_

_“One kiss,” Lord Hideo repeats, “and you’ll have your precious gift from your mother back.”_

_She hesitates for a moment, and then leans in to gently press her mouth to his. Lord Hideo grabs her by the waist and pulls her in hard to him, his tongue finding the space between their lips._

_Suzu’s in something of a daze when they break apart, and almost doesn’t notice the bell amulet being dropped into her hand._

_“Come join me in the tea house one night,” Lord Hideo whispers in her ear, before wandering back into the house._

_And so she does._

_The first time Suzu meets Lord Hideo in the tea house, there’s a prick of pain and a rush of blood, but the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth times are nothing but the greatest pleasure she’s ever known. She starts to feel bold enough to call him by his name instead of his title when they’re alone together. Lord Hideo sends her away every time they finish entwining with each other, but the glow of joy keeps her warm throughout the cold winter._

_And then, one day, he stops asking for her to join him._

_Everyone in the household stays up on New Year’s Eve to welcome the changing of the calendar. As the local temple bell rings out 108 times to mark the sins of the past year, Suzu finds Lord Hideo in the garden and slides up next to him._

_She reaches for his hand. He pulls it away from her._

_“Hideo-sama,” she says, too quietly for anyone else to hear, “You haven’t called me out here for some time now.”_

_“Hmm?” he says, his eyes watching the stars shimmer through the cold winter air. “Oh, I don’t need you anymore.”_

_“What?” she says, not believing._

_He keeps looking up at the sky, half-ignoring Suzu. “Didn’t you hear? I’m getting married this year. They arranged a good match for me, with a lady from Kubota-han. It should really cement my future social standing.”_

_“Oh,” Suzu says. She looks up and tries to watch the stars too, but unshed tears blur her vision._

_Suzu spends the next couple of days curled up in bed, neglecting her duties. She cries off and on. Harada, the tiny old woman who’s head servant, berates her, and says that she’s likely to lose her place in the household if she keeps it up. A servant who doesn’t serve isn’t worth keeping around. Still, Suzu remains bed-ridden._

_Until Iemon appears with a message one evening. He kneels outside her chamber, unwilling to go in, and calls out to her, “Suzu-kun? Hideo-dono asks that you meet him in the usual spot at midnight tonight.”_

_Suzu’s spirits rise for the first time since New Year’s. “Please tell my lord I will be most grateful to answer his request,” she answers._

_She spends the rest of the day making up the work she’s been shirking. Harada seems puzzled but pleased._

_Suzu waits on pins and needles until midnight, and then slips out of her chambers silently, careful to muss her beddings in case anyone checks to see if she’s still there. She tucks her lucky bell into her obi to muffle its jingling as she creeps through past the main rooms._

_The moon is clear and full, casting the bare plum trees in silvery light. Piles of dirt sit next to big open holes here and there where the gardeners are in the midst of prepping the new spring plants. There’s still a sprinkling of snow in places, but it’ll melt before the plum blossoms start to bloom, marking the start of spring with glorious crimson._

_One of the sliding doors is open. Lord Hideo waits for her, his legs dangling off the edge. Suzu runs to him, throws her arms around him, lays her head on his lap. Lord Hideo gently pries her off. She tries to control her disappointment._

_“You wanted to see me, Hideo-sama?” she asks._

_“I did,” he says. There’s something sharp and metallic in his tone tonight. “You know, Suzu-chan, this whole thing has to end.”_

_“Hideo-sama?”_

_“You see,” he says, standing, “I’m getting married, to a lady of the Satake clan, who is beautiful and rich and from an immensely powerful family. And while our little trysts have been fun, I don’t want her asking why some pathetic servant girl is desperately mooning over me.”_

_Suzu takes two steps away from Lord Hideo. This isn’t at all what she was expecting._

_“Do you love her?” Suzu asks. Tears build at the corners of her eyes._

_Lord Hideo laughs. “Of course not. It’s a political marriage. It’ll do wonders for my social standing. Who cares about love?” He smiles and it’s still so beautiful despite the coldness in it. “I don’t love you either, but it’s never seemed to bother you.”_  


_Suzu feels like she’s been slapped._

_“The thing is,” Lord Hideo continues, ignoring her expression. “Your behaviour is causing a bit of a problem for me. And I need things smoothed over before my new bride arrives from Kubota-han. You understand.”_

_The other screen door slides open. Iemon stands there. His unsheathed sword glistens in the moonlight. Suzu suddenly does understand. She turns to flee, but she can’t run in a kimono. Iemon is on her in one quick move, dragging her by the hair into the empty tea house. Lord Hideo closes the screen doors behind them, casting everything into stark black and white shadows._

_“It’s for the best,” Lord Hideo says. “After all, I have my future to think of.”_

_Suzu tries screaming, but the blade slices deep across her throat, leaving nothing but a muffled sound and a gurgle of blood._

  


_Suzu isn’t quite dead when they throw her into a hole by the plum tree next to the tea house. Iemon starts shovelling dirt in while Lord Hideo watches her dispassionately. The last thing she sees before dirt covers her face is Lord Hideo turning to walk away._

_No, Suzu thinks as her life nears its end, it can’t end like this. I gave him everything. He can’t do this to me._

_He is mine._

_Give him to me._

_He is **mine**._

 

The images faded, and Kayo turns to glare at Lord Hideo. “You killed her!”

“I did not!” Lord Hideo shot back. “Iemon did. I would never dirty my hands by killing someone myself.” He tightened his grip around the handle of the short sword and advanced at Kayo. She backed up, but there was nowhere to go in the tea house, and her palms bumped against the opposite wall.

“I am the family heir!” Lord Hideo said. “I will be master here one day! Anything standing in my way is merely an obstacle to be removed!

“And that’s why angry ghost is after your blood, because you led her on and then murdered her!” exclaimed Kayo.

Lord Hideo let out a cry of guttural rage and swung the sword at Kayo, slicing right through her cotton sleeve and opening a bloody gash on her arm. Kayo screamed out in pain.

The Sword of Exorcism clicked a third time, and unsealed itself.

 

**Act IV.  
  
** Exorcism 

 

There was a burst of light as the Medicine Seller drew forth the sword, and then reality exploded outwards.

Everything – the tea house, the garden, the estate, Mito-shi – was suddenly gone, as Kayo found herself kneeling in a shapeless void, whirls of vermillion plum blossom petals spinning everywhere around her. 

Even the Medicine Seller had changed. In his place was the _Other_ she’d seen before. Long white hair blew in the wind above dark bare arms that pulsed with rippling golden lines. In his hand, he held a sword made of pure energy so bright it hurt to look at.

Lord Hideo collapsed to his knees on the ground nearby, clutching his blood-specked sword so tightly that his knuckles were white. The onryou loomed above them all, bigger than the great towers of Edo, hair and kimono edges blowing in the same wind that permeated everything. She screamed, and her voice was like a million bells ringing at once. Kayo felt frozen in place, unable to move in the face of such power.

“Suzu-san,” called out the Other. “You have been greatly wronged. But mononoke cannot be allowed to exist in this world.”

He hefted his sword and leapt. The great bulk of her moved with a surprisingly fluid motion, claws lashing out to parry his blade, to reach for his heart. The world pulsed photonegative every time the two collided with each other.

The Other attacked her side, but she anticipated his move, knocking him away. With the Other struggling to his feet, the onryou reached for Lord Hideo, wrapping a massive hand around him, pressing a sharp red claw against his throat. A drop of blood appeared where the tip of her nail broke his skin.

“Please don’t,” he begged.

The onryou yelled out in rage and started to crush him – and then stopped. She collapsed forward onto her knees, shrinking in size. A golden energy blade pierced through her heart. The Other stood behind her, watching dispassionately.

She shrunk until she was roughly human size, and then exploded into a mass of black powder. As the powder slowly dissolved, Kayo could see the shade of a sad girl with freckles standing in the midst of it.

Then, like a fading afterimage, she was gone.

A tiny golden bell amulet dropped to the ground, and was still.

And with a click, reality settled back into place, and Kayo found herself back in the same spot she’d been in when the sword was unsealed.

The wall with the sliding doors had been knocked violently off the tea house, leaving wreckage all over the surrounding area. The dirt around the bottom of the tree had been blown away, leaving a half-decomposed corpse with a slit throat exposed for all the world to see. 

Kayo and Lord Hideo stayed frozen in the spots where they had been, with Kayo backed against the back wall and Lord Hideo pointing a sword at her. Both of them just stared at each other, still in shock from what they’d seen.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kayo noticed that the Medicine Seller’s pack was no longer in the tea house.

There was a ruckus outside in the garden, as a tiny old woman and a pair of guards carrying paper lanterns ran out to see them.

“Hideo-sama,” called out the woman. “What’s going on out here? We heard—”

They froze as they approached the tea house. In the light of the lanterns, their eyes took in the scene before them: Okiku lying prostrate on the floor and covered in deep gashes, Kayo cringing in terror and clutching at a cut on her arm, a half-decomposed corpse poking out of a hole next to the tea house, Lord Hideo looming over all three with a bloody sword in his hand.

One of the guards stepped forward. “Hideo ... -sama? What happened here?”

Lord Hideo looked at the sword in his hands before throwing it to the ground. It skittered across the tatami mats.

“I... I don’t...” he stammered.

The guards advanced slowly on him.

There was a brief flash of blue robes as the Medicine Seller walked straight past the guards, without them noticing.

While everyone else was distracted, Kayo quietly slunk out of the tea house and followed him down the path.

As she passed by, pale pink blossoms opened on the last barren plum tree.

 

**  
  
**EPILOGUE

 

Kayo caught up with the Medicine Seller at the main gate of the estate, as he was starting to close it behind him. “Wait!” she called out, and he stopped. She made it to the gate, and took a minute to catch her breath.

“Are you leaving? Just like that?” she asked.

The paper lanterns on the street had been lit, giving everything a warm pastel glow. The light softened the Medicine Seller’s dispassionate features.

“Yes,” he said. “The mononoke has been defeated. There is no reason for me to stay any longer.”

“Oh.” For some reason, she felt a little disappointed with the answer. The cut on her arm throbbed, and she pressed a hand to it to try and keep it from bleeding too much.

“Well, thank you,” she said. “For saving me. Again. I guess I owe you a lot for constantly saving me.”

The Medicine Seller said nothing, but looked over Kayo for a long minute before seeming to come to a decision. He set his pack down on the ground and poked through the drawers for something, before standing back up. He motioned for Kayo to put out her free hand, and then gently placed a small paper packet in it.

Kayo shook it. “What is this?”

“Hemostatic powder. You can use it to treat Okiku-sama’s wounds.” His gaze flicked downwards to her arm. “And your own.”

She clutched it to her chest. “Oh. Thank you.”

The Medicine Seller re-shouldered his pack and turned to leave once more.

“Will I see you again?” she called out.

The Medicine Seller paused, but didn’t turn around. “Either in this life or another, I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

And then he vanished into the darkness of the night.


End file.
